Readers sound off on racist flags, modern cops and cheating charters

Bronx: The NYPD flag, with its alternating green-and-white bars to represent the five boroughs, was created in 1919 in part to symbolically represent the multigenerational Irish force. There are also green lights posted outside of each police precinct. No such relics should exist today, because they imbue certain officers with a gloating sense of ownership and racial supremacy.

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After the death of an officer, his or her casket is draped with that green-and-white flag. Recently, that officer was a black man, Randolph Holder, murdered in the line of duty. His casket, draped in that green-and-white flag and guarded by NYPD officers, was flown to his country of birth, Guyana.

With explosive ethnic divisions brewing throughout the nation, all symbols and dominance wielded by a particular ethnic group in law enforcement should be quickly abolished and replaced by a modern-day symbol of racial neutrality to help midwife the birth of a more perfect Police Department. H.P. Amos

Chew on this

Bellerose: Voicer Bill Fruhauf, who challenged critics of charter schools to produce facts, can eat a full serving of crow now that it has been revealed that a principal in an Eva Moskowitz Success Academy created a "got to go" list of students who were difficult to teach and repeatedly suspended them ("Eva's pre-Ks hit as rogue," Oct. 29). Be careful what you wish for. Robert Berger

Charter disaster

Manhattan: Michael Petrilli of the right-wing Fordham Institute has rushed to Eva Moskowitz's defense after revelations that proved a culture of pushing out difficult students at her Success Academy charter schools ("The real moral duty of charters," Op-Ed, Oct. 31). While Petrilli writes that "everyone agrees that suspensions and expulsions should be rare," Moskowitz does not agree. In one of her schools last year, there were 44 out-of-school suspensions among just 203 kindergartners and first-graders. Petrilli tries to justify other Moskowitz practices like counseling out students with significant disabilities, not serving a fair share of English-language learners and refusing to fill empty seats while claiming to have a large waiting list (one that is kept secret and is likely filled with thousands of redundant names). It sounds like Petrilli's solution for our public schools is to allow them to not serve the neediest and most challenging students. This might be common practice in privately run charter schools, but it raises serious questions about why they are allowed to do so on the public dime. Billy EastonExecutive director, Alliance for Quality Education

Put up or shut up

Middle Village: Once again, Eva Moskowitz proves that it is all about the money. I am not sorry to tell her and all those who receive taxpayers' money that they must open their books to public scrutiny. There is no inherent right to secrecy when public cash is involved. Larry Hoffman

Teacher transfer tricks

Brooklyn: In response to Sol Stern's unfair criticism of the former teacher transfer system ("Worms in the Apple," Op-Ed, Nov. 1): Before that system was in place, you had to know someone to be able to transfer. For years, Districts 21 and 22 in south Brooklyn would post that they had no vacancies. Of course there were vacancies — but they were saved for friends and relatives of people in the know. The seniority transfer policy meant good teachers were finally able to get out of inferior schools where disruptive children made teaching an impossibility. That in turn was done away with in 2005, thanks to then-UFT head Randi Weingarten, and replaced with a supposed fair-market system, where teachers have to go before committees before they're permitted to transfer. Nonsense. Principals know in advance who they're taking and just make believe that the people being interviewed are really under consideration. Our school system is the way it is due to a lack of direction and refusal to do anything constructive about the lack of discipline in many schools. I wish that Stern and other critics of teachers would themselves try teaching. They wouldn't last an hour. Ed Greenspan

Cops and thugs

Cold Spring, N.Y.: Voicer Michael Domis' statements about South Carolina police officer Ben Fields were outrageous. The child was a thug, and thugs come in many forms — male and female, old and young. For him and other Voicers to call out this police officer, or any other officer for that matter, without knowing the full facts is what's wrong with this country. Suffice it to say, there are many other students coming to his defense. Patricia Biondi

Authority figures

Brooklyn: Voicer Jay Zach's blind respect for authority is understandable if he's never had a problem with it, but many people have. Cops are sometimes wrong, and sometimes lie. If that had been Zach's daughter, would he really say she deserved to be slammed for disobeying the officer's authority? Dan Freeman

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Kids and thugs

Brooklyn: To Voicer Ken Elder, who said that children would not face abuse from security officers and teachers if they had been raised correctly: The young lady in the video is a teenager in foster care. Teenagers have been defiant since the dawn of time. That is what detention, writeups and suspensions are for. They are not supposed to be treated like violent criminals because they didn't put a phone away. That officer was a grown man who looked all too comfortable assaulting a young girl. I don't see how anyone could think that his behavior was acceptable. Zindzi Marksman

These kids today

Oakland Gardens: I went to Archbishop Molloy in the early '60s and got smacked around pretty good. Guess what? I deserved it, as did my buddies. Ninety percent of us went on to college. My blood boils when I see what these kids today are getting away with. Gerald E. Maley

Tough love

East Meadow, L.I.: Growing up poor in south Brooklyn in the '40s and '50s, I went to PS 124 and PS 40, where a group of us boys were rowdy and my mom (God love her and so do I) was called to PS 40 to meet with the principal, Mr. Campbell. She told him if I did it again, he should kick my butt. If this happened today, someone would be suing. Jack Hawkins

No fair deal

Jamaica: I have worked all my adult life raising five children alone and putting myself through college. I was born here in the U.S.A. and have paid into Social Security from my wages. Now that I am a 77-year-old great-grandmother, I can't get the help I need to live. I am being denied dentures, X-rays, a wheelchair, etc. When I called Fidelis, they told me to pay for everything and they would reimburse me. I don't have the money to pay for these things. Then last week I read that undocumented immigrants are eligible for Medicaid. How can this be? I can't chew food with my 15-year-old dentures and I should be dying of starvation soon. Can someone tell me why? I think this calls for a class-action suit. Carmen Wilson

Just us

Bronx: No cost-of-living adjustment for senior citizens, but politicians are double-dipping in Albany. This is justice? Yolanda Rojas

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It's getting hot in here

Bronx: To Voicer Etherlbert Johnson: The reason people don't wear gloves when preparing a pizza, or any food going in an oven for that matter, is that the 500-degree environment kills any germs. W. Twirley

Sad day

Hallandale Beach, Fla.: I watched "Happy Days" on ABC when I was a child, and Al Molinaro did a great job playing the diner owner. He looked a bit handsome, and he made me laugh. Rest in peace, Al. Paul Bacon

Grace note

Bayside: The best — maybe the only good — thing about Game 5 of the World Series was the perfectly stirring rendition of the national anthem by Frank Pizarro of the FDNY. Demi Lovato, who botched the song before Game 4, and all the other so-called pop stars should listen and learn how the anthem should be sung: With respect, no extra notes, no warbling and no screaming to reach the high notes. Thank you, Mr. Pizarro, and may God keep you and your brothers and sisters in the department safe. Jack Cohen